Protesters allow out bankers, lawmakers trapped in Bosnian parliament

June 07, 2013|Reuters

SARAJEVO, June 7 (Reuters) - Around 1,500 lawmakers,government employees and international bankers stuck insideBosnia's parliament for 14 hours were allowed to leave thebuilding in the early hours of Friday after a deal was reachedwith blockading protesters outside.

Thousands of people, most of them students and young parentswith babies, surrounded the building on Thursday to protest atthe failure of Bosnia's rival Serb, Croat and Muslim lawmakersto agree on how to determine the 13-digit identification numbersassigned to every citizen.

Bosnia's international peace envoy Valentin Inzko convincedthe protesters to let the trapped people out at 0400 a.m. (0200GMT) by promising to help resolve the issue.

Some 250 foreign bankers who were attending a financeconference were among those caught up in the blockade and somehad appealed to their embassies to help them get out of a"hostage situation", Inzko said.

"I received calls from Austrian and German diplomats askingto help them get out," Inzko told state television on Friday."This will reflect on Bosnia's image abroad because these peopleare foreign bankers who came to inquire investment possibilitiesin Bosnia."

The row over how to draw up districts for ID numbers is oneof the most egregious examples of the ethnic politicking thathas plagued Bosnia since the end of its 1992-95 war, which leftthe country with a weak central government and a system ofethnic quotas that has stifled development.

In early February, a court ruling effectively frozeregistrations, meaning newborns cannot be issued with passportsor the medical cards they need to be seen by a doctor.

The protest outside parliament was organised after theparents of a three-month-old baby revealed on Facebook this weekthat their child was denied travel documents for an urgentstem-cell transplant in Germany.

On Wednesday, the government reached an interim deal toresume issuing identification numbers for the next six months,including for the baby, until a long-term agreement is reached..

The protesters said they will continue their demonstrationsas long as it takes, however.

The government of Bosnia's autonomous Serb Republic, whichmakes up Bosnia along with a federation dominated by Muslims andCroats, has called a session of its parliament on Friday todiscuss the situation.

Bosnian Serbs are pressing for a new registrationarrangement along territorial lines. Muslims, known as Bosniaks,say that would only cement the ethnic divide.

"Unfortunately, this is a real picture of Bosnia's realityand illustrates the political crisis and impotence of thesystem," opposition deputy Asim Sarajlic told state televisionafter leaving the parliament.